Monday, 7 July 2014

Books in the Post! 'Still a little shell-shocked...' edition

I'm so glad that last week is now officially consigned to the annals of history, never to be experienced again. It started off with a job (short term contract) that was pretty dire and with a paycheck to match. You're thinking that it probably couldn't get worse than that, I didn't think so either until I was fired on Friday (for having an interview for another job on the Thursday). The pay was awful but it was better than no pay at all!
Five minutes after I got home though, I was offered the job that I had interviewed for :o) My nerves were shot (gin took care of that later...) but all's well that ends well.

With all of that going on then, there wasn't a lot of time for books last week. It was somehow fitting then that only two arrived. Have a look...

'Aftermath' is the sequel to 'The Remaining' (reviewed Here) and it's a bit more of a slog than I was expecting. Not sure if it's me or if the problems I had with 'The Remaining' have reared their ugly heads again. I'll give it a few more pages and let you know.

'The Relic Guild' though... This is more like it, I'm only a few pages in and already there's no doubt that I'm in for the long haul. Gollancz are clearly doing very well with their debuts this year, have some blurb,

Magic caused the war. Magic is forbidden. Magic will save us.

It
was said the Labyrinth had once been the great meeting place, a
sprawling city at the heart of an endless maze where a million humans
hosted the Houses of the Aelfir. The Aelfir who had brought trade and
riches, and a future full of promise. But when the Thaumaturgists,
overlords of human and Aelfir alike, went to war, everything was ruined
and the Labyrinth became an abandoned forbidden zone, where humans were
trapped behind boundary walls 100 feet high.

Now the Aelfir are a
distant memory and the Thaumaturgists have faded into myth. Young Clara
struggles to survive in a dangerous and dysfunctional city, where eyes
are keen, nights are long, and the use of magic is punishable by death.
She hides in the shadows, fearful that someone will discover she is
touched by magic. She knows her days are numbered. But when a strange
man named Fabian Moor returns to the Labyrinth, Clara learns that magic
serves a higher purpose and that some myths are much more deadly in the
flesh.

The only people Clara can trust are the Relic Guild, a
secret band of magickers sworn to protect the Labyrinth. But the Relic
Guild are now too few. To truly defeat their old nemesis Moor, mightier help
will be required. To save the Labyrinth - and the lives of one million
humans - Clara and the Relic Guild must find a way to contact the worlds
beyond their walls.

I reckon there'll be a review in the next couple of weeks.
What else am I reading? Well, I'm finishing off Rob Sanders' 'Archaon' (not bad at all) but other than that I can't seem to concentrate on anything for more than a few pages at a time. It might even be time to dig out some comfort reads (it's been ages since I read 'The Belgariad'...) What do you read when you're in a similar spot...?